The Solar Kill
by filmFreak1
Summary: Post Volume 2. Crossover Veronica Mars. Darkfic featuring character death; Sylar makes an error that brings tragedy to the town of Neptune. FINISHED!
1. Aftermath

**Title:** The Solar Kill

**Author: **filmFreak1

**Disclaimer: **_Heroes_ and _Veronica Mars_ belong to Tim Kring/NBC and Rob Thomas/CW, respectively, and whoever else has rights to either of these series.

**Rated:** T (violent content)

**Summary:** Post Volume 2. Crossover Veronica Mars. Darkfic, featuring character death. Sylar makes an error that brings tragedy to the town of Neptune.

**Feedback: **would be very highly appreciated. I don't mind criticism, but try to be constructive.

The bearded man sitting behind the desk regarded the visitors who sat before him. The one who sat on the left resembled him slightly (for one thing, they were both bald), but was clean-shaven, older, and more heavyset, and wore glasses with thick dark frames—perhaps a little similar to how he himself might look in about ten or twenty years. This visitor had introduced himself as Bob—no surname given.

The one who sat on the right was as different from the other as night from day; to any outsider, it would have been unbelievable that she was related at all to the older man. She was thin, blond, and gorgeous. Despite her beauty, however, the bearded man could hardly stand to look at her. She reminded him too much of…_her_. Part of him wanted to leap over the desk and strangle this imposter, and yet another part wanted to cry and hug her tightly. The only reason he had not done the latter of these was that he had been expecting them, and thus knew she was not who he wished she was.

It had all started a month ago, after the horrific event; the image of the top half of her skull separated from the rest of her body still haunted him. The funeral had been a very somber event, even by funeral standards; Wallace Fennel had been especially devastated by the loss. The bearded man (although he had not had the beard then) had sworn an oath to himself that he would find the one responsible for such an act and put him in a hole, whether it be a cell or a grave. He had put all of his deputies on the case, at the neglect of everything else. The lower elements of Neptune had taken notice, and crime had shot up greatly as a result. The man now sitting behind the desk stopped taking proper care of himself; he stopped shaving altogether (hence the beard), and only took a shower once every few days. Nothing mattered except for hunting the monster. The deputies were initially sympathetic, but eventually grew frustrated with his obsession. Finally, about a week ago, they had unanimously decided that he was emotionally incapable of carrying on his duties as sheriff and should be taken off the job until further notice. He was put on paid suspension, and a deputy was selected to serve as acting sheriff in the meantime.

Not that that had stopped him of course. He continued the case from his other office, turning down all clients who approached him about taking their cases. After learning about the brain-stealing serial killer from the feds who came to Neptune to investigate the murder, newspaper articles began to line his walls; articles either printed off the Internet or scanned from the microfilm at the public library, all of them having to do with the monster's victims, such as James Walker and Zane Taylor.

A few days ago, he had received a phone call. The man known as Bob was on the other end of the line. Apparently, Bob's daughter, who now sat next to him, had read about the murder in an online article and had noticed that the victim bore a very strong resemblance to herself. Bob had gone on to say that he was coming down to Neptune shortly.

Hence how they were now sitting in front of the desk.

The bearded man had heard of the doppelganger theory before, the idea that everyone had a physical double out there, but he had never believed it…until now.

After what seemed to be an eternity of silence, he leaned forward on his desk. "So what did you come here to tell me?"

"Don't forget that we agreed on the phone that what we showed you would stay in this office, Detective," said Bob.

The bearded man nodded in reply.

Bob turned to his daughter. "Go ahead, Elle."

"Detective Mars, we believe Sylar killed your daughter because he wanted to kill me."

Keith Mars leaned back. "So Veronica died because of a case of mistaken identity? Is that what you're telling me?"

Elle nodded.

He closed his eyes. This revelation did nothing to ease his pain.

A moment later he opened his eyes again and looked at Elle. "So tell me, why would this…Sylar want to kill you?" He had previously detected that all was not right with his daughter's clone. There was something about her demeanor that bothered him, like she was an evil twin or something. Did Sylar have a good reason for wanting to kill her?

Elle turned and looked at her father.

"Go ahead, honey, we're going to have to tell him eventually anyway," said Bob.

Turning back to Keith, she raised her hand, palm facing toward him. He could not believe what he saw next.

Blue sparks of electricity crackled and traveled up and down her palm; Keith jumped in surprise.

"What the hell?!"

"Like I told you before, Detective, my company has a lot of very special people," said Bob. "Many of their abilities are just as powerful as or more so than Elle's here."

Keith's eyes jumped from Elle to Bob. "So what does that have to do with this Sylar?"

Bob explained in great detail to Keith how Sylar was able to use people's brains to steal their abilities and how he had nearly destroyed New York City with his nuclear powers; Keith remembered reading about the mysterious explosion that had been seen in the skies over the city that night.

When he was finished, Bob said, "Listen, Detective, we know how hard this has been on you, but Sylar is a very dangerous man. Now that he has his powers back, even those with such abilities are scared to go up against him."

Keith leaned forward once again. "Are you telling me what I think you're telling me?"

"I'm telling you that you need to give up your hunt for him. I know how hard that is, but you will only get yourself killed if you don't."

Keith started to open his mouth to reply, but Bob continued. "Listen, if you do as I ask, I'll keep you up to date on our investigation. Please, Detective, think of what your daughter would want. Go back to your job as sheriff and help those that need it."

After another moment's silence, Keith replied, "I'll consider your request."

--

_Author's Note: This fic was just an idea that popped in my head recently. For now, I plan to conclude it in a couple of chapters, and those chapters will explain what happened before. Basically, the current plan is for it to be a short fic told in reverse._

_ Feedback, of course, will be highly appreciated._


	2. One Month Ago

_A/N: FYI, as the chapter title implies, this chapter takes place a month before the first chapter does._

--

Gabriel Gray stumbled out of the alley, angry and disappointed.

For the most part, he had laid low ever since he had gotten his abilities back, moving silently from town to town. Thankfully, his name and face had yet to be released to the public, so for the most part, no one knew that he was the infamous Sylar. The Company was probably looking for him, and he needed to wait until things cooled off before he started stealing powers again. And once he did, he would destroy the Company once and for all before going on to do the same to Peter Petrelli and any other special individuals who would have qualified for Mohinder Suresh's precious list.

He had arrived in the town of Neptune a few days ago. Compared to places like New York, it seemed rather out of the way; a good place to hide. He had checked into a hotel and mostly stayed in his room, watching TV (especially the news).

A few hours ago, he had decided that no one would be looking for him here for now, and had decided to go out for a bit. One of the first things that he had noticed was the large gap between the Haves and the Have-nots in this town. His hotel was located in the poorer areas, where the motorcycle gangs hung out; the sounds created by their bikes often rattled the windows in his room at night.

The class divide became quite apparent when he crossed into the other area of town, the one with the mall and the clothing stores and the nice restaurants. After exploring the downtown area for a while, he had found a rather classy-looking bar and went in. Sitting down at a table, he had ordered a drink.

And then he had seen her.

Thin, young, blond, gorgeous. She definitely looked very similar to the girl who had nearly fried him back in New York before he escaped with the blood that had saved his life and restored to him that which had been taken. She was sitting at the bar talking to a young brunette about her age; now he only needed to get a better view of the blonde's face. After leaving some money on the table for his drink, he had stood up and moved closer to the bar to get a look.

It was definitely her. Sure, he had only seen her for a few seconds back in New York, but he had a very good memory (for which he could thank that unfortunate waitress back in Texas), and he had known beyond a doubt he was looking at the one who had nearly brought his quest to an end. So the Company _was _looking for him here. Damn! Had they been using Molly Walker again? No, he had decided, otherwise they would have come looking for him at the hotel.

He had thought that he had seen the blonde glance his way a couple times from where she was sitting; however, when she continued talking to her brunette friend as though nothing was out of the ordinary, he had thought she had been looking at something or someone else, either beside him or behind him. Just to make sure, he had used his hearing ability to listen to their conversation, in which they talked about events at the campus; apparently, her brunette friend's name was Mac. Interesting name for a girl, he thought.

It had not once occurred to him at the time that the blonde may have had no clue who he was.

When he thought about it now, he realized that there was more than one time when he should have realized that it may have been the wrong person. Like when she didn't react to his presence in the bar. Or when, after waiting outside the bar for her to come out, he had attacked her and she had not once attempted to electrocute him.

But no, he didn't figure it out until he had removed her brain and realized almost instantly that he had killed the wrong blonde.

And so, not only had he murdered an innocent in vain, but it would now put the feds and the Company on his trail.

He had to get out of town now, before the two bodies were discovered in the alley.

--

_A/N: Special thanks to desi393 for being my sole reviewer for Chapter 1 (as of the posting of this second chapter). I always knew I could count on you!_

_The plan for the next (and probably final) chapter is to have it tell the details of the attack. Hey, I did say in the summary that this was a darkfic, folks!_

_Please, if you read this story, leave feedback, even if it's to criticize. I couldn't help but notice that, despite only one review, I had many hits._


	3. Attack

Veronica arrived at the bar and sat down. Ordering a coke, she waited. A few minutes later, she saw Mac come in, and waved to her to catch her attention. Mac saw her and came over to where she was sitting.

"Hey, Mac. Thanks for coming."

"No problem, Veronica."

"Did you bring it?"

"I'm here, aren't I?" Reaching into jacket pocket, Mac pulled out two DVD-Rs in their plastic cases and handed it to the blonde. "Here you go…all the files I could find after hacking into the Primatech server."

Veronica pulled several bills out of her purse and handed them to the brunette. "Thanks, Mac. You want a drink?"

"Sure!"

After ordering a Sprite (neither of them were of legal drinking age yet), Mac asked, "So what exactly made you suspicious about a paper company, Veronica?"

The blonde leaned close. "Promise not to tell?" The brunette nodded in response.

"My mentor from my FBI internship called me the other day. After swearing me to secrecy, he told me that a Texas-based paper company may be a front for a much larger secret organization. Unfortunately, none of the programming experts seemed to be able to hack into the company's server. My mentor said that he knew I had good resources, and asked me to see if any of them would be able to do the job, provided I could trust them to keep their mouth shut."

Mac nodded. "So what is this secret organization suspected of being involved in? Terrorist activities?"

"He wouldn't say."

"Ah."

Veronica noticed a thin young man, not too much older than her, coming into the bar and sitting down. He had dark hair and had clearly not shaved in a few days. _Hmm, I've never seen him here before._ She briefly considered the idea that he was a Primatech agent sent to recover what Mac had taken, but then decided that she was just being paranoid. Just to be safe, however, she decided to change the subject.

"So, how have classes gone for you lately, Mac?"

"Okay, I guess. Advanced Composition is pretty easy, but really boring, and Differential Equations…"

Veronica was only half-listening as she saw, out of the corner of her eye, the stranger get up and move closer to the bar. She looked at him a couple times to see if he was watching her, but she didn't look long enough to tell; if he was a Primatech employee, she didn't want to let him know she was onto him. She nearly sighed in relief when he turned and walked out of the bar. _Guess I was wrong._

"…and you're not even listening, are you?"

"What?" Veronica jerked her head back in Mac's direction. "Oh, no, I'm listening. Really. Please continue."

Mac leaned close. "Is it Logan?"

"Excuse me?"

"Are you thinking of him again? Is that what's bothering you?"

"No, I wasn't thinking of Logan…not until you mentioned him just now. I just thought I saw something, that's all."

They talked a while more about their classes before Mac stood up and left, mentioning that she had homework to do. Veronica stayed in the bar a few minutes longer before getting up to leave as well.

The blonde was attacked less than a minute later.

She had not taken five steps outside the bar when she suddenly felt herself being thrown to her left; not so much as if something had picked her up and thrown her, but more as though she were in a fast roller coaster that had suddenly stopped when she wasn't fastened in.

She landed on the pavement, scraping against it to a halt. Looking up, she saw the stranger from the bar, smiling back; his dark eyes glinted in the dim light. _Oh, God, Mac, what have you gotten me into?_

"Hello, Elle. Do you remember me?"

Veronica was puzzled. _I don't recall having ever seen this guy before. Wait, did he just call me L?_

"How did you do that?" she replied, referring to having briefly flown through the air.

His smile widened. "How do you think, Elle? I managed to grab some of that cure-all blood back in New York, and now I'm whole again."

Veronica gave him a blank look. "Look, I don't who you are or what L is supposed to stand for, but…"

"Don't play dumb, Elle, I always remember a face, especially when it belongs to someone who has something I want."

Quickly deciding that it wasn't worth going up against him, Veronica reached into her purse and pulled out the two DVDs of Primatech data that Mac had given her. "Okay, you want them? Here they are; now please go." She tossed them away from her; the plastic cases clattered against the pavement.

The stranger did not even look at the discs; instead, he laughed. "You think that's what I'm after? You know, for someone who nearly fried me, you are pretty stupid, you know that?" He started walking toward her; one of the plastic cases crunched underneath his foot.

Scrambling to her feet, Veronica reached into her purse for her taser, waiting for the right moment to strike as he came closer.

When he was within a few steps, she pulled out the taser with a swift movement, only for it to suddenly be torn from her hand.

"You're using a _taser_ now? What, did you forget to plug into an outlet and charge yourself last night?" said the stranger, chuckling.

That was when Veronica saw a sight she never thought she would ever see: her taser floating in midair in front of her face. Behind it, the stranger was wearing his most evil smile; his hand was extended outward, as though he were controlling the taser's movements. He moved his hand slightly, and the taser turned around so that it was pointing at Veronica. _Oh no._ The blonde was certain what was coming next.

She was right. The stranger's hand moved again, and the taser flew right into her neck. Pain shot through her body, and she uttered a sound that was somewhere between a gurgle and a scream. After several seconds, she fell to the ground, her body convulsing and her head swimming with nausea.

"Doesn't feel so good, does it, Elle?" said the stranger, smirking.

Veronica felt her body once again being lifted off the ground by nothing. Her muscles were still jerking involuntarily, and she had started foaming at the mouth, drooling onto the pavement a few feet below her.

Then she was flying yet again, this time being thrown into an alley about ten yards away, where once again she scraped against the pavement as she landed on her side, facing the entrance to the alley.

She saw the stranger, outlined in silhouette by the light from the streetlamps, approach her again. When he was standing right next to her, he slowly kneeled down, dark eyes gleaming above his evil smile.

Something moved behind him.

Or rather, someone moved; someone who was carrying a long object.

His face was revealed in the dim light, and Veronica now had no doubt.

It was Logan Echolls, and he was carrying a crowbar. She surmised that he had happened to be in that part of town when she was attacked by the stranger, and was now going to rescue her.

As she watched with great hope, Logan crept up behind the stranger, fists clenched tightly around the crowbar.

The stranger leaned in close, cupped her chin in his hand, and whispered to her, "You know, it's such a shame that your hero doesn't know that I could hear his heartbeat long before he came here."

Veronica's eyes shot wide open, and she tried to warn Logan, but her words were indiscernible. She ended up drooling all over the stranger's hand; the taser had been quite effective. Grinning, the stranger let go of her face and wiped his hand on her shirt just as Logan swung the crowbar.

The blow never struck the stranger. Instead, Logan was struck with disbelief as the stranger held out his palm behind himself, and the crowbar was stopped an inch away from the palm by…nothing?

Logan did not have long to contemplate the situation, as the crowbar flew out of his hands, and then, seemingly on its own, swung and hit him in the stomach, causing him to double over in pain, before it swung again and struck him in the head with a sickening crunch. He crumpled to the pavement, and found himself staring into Veronica's face.

As blood poured from the side of his head over his ear, nose, and mouth, he looked her in the eyes and mouthed the words, "I love you." Then his eyes went blank.

"Don't worry, Elle, you'll be joining your hero soon enough. And then you'll be joined by your father, Dr. Suresh, Maya, Peter, and every other person from that company that used me as their guinea pig."

She closed her eyes and screamed in pain as her forehead starting to split, accompanied by a cracking sound and followed by her warm blood pouring down her face.

Then the pain vanished.

She stopped screaming and opened her eyes. She found herself standing in a green meadow. For some reason, she was neither surprised nor puzzled to find herself here; it felt as though she was exactly where she supposed to be.

Off in the distance, she could see a figure waving at her. She smiled as she realized it was her friend Lilly, and started running toward her.

--

_A/N: I decided to add those last few sentences mainly due to the fact that the chapter was so dark that I was starting to depress myself. Anyway, this was probably the last chapter of this fic, since I can't think of anywhere else to take this story; I told what I wanted to tell. Hope you enjoyed the ride as much as I did._

_As I have begged before, please leave feedback, especially since this fic is now complete._


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